Department of Evangelization & Catechesis

The essential mission of the Church is evangelization “and the work of each individual member is important for the whole” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 15). We begin by being evangelized ourselves. The Department of Evangelization and Catechesis seeks to continually be converted to Christ. For the parishioners of St. Theresa, we seek to make every encounter with the parish a personal encounter with Jesus Christ (Evangelii Gaudium). “The primary reason for evangelizing is the love of Jesus which we have received...What kind of love would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him known?” (Evangelii Gaudium, 264). We pray that Christ will touch our hearts and the hearts of our parishioners that we will be renewed with the intense desire to share this love.

Catechesis is an essential moment of evangelization. “Through catechesis the Gospel kerygma (the initial ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith) is gradually deepened, developed in its implicit consequences, explained in language that includes an appeal to reason, and channeled towards Christian practice in the Church and the world (Catechesi Tradendae, 25). The evangelization and catechesis of adults is primary and serves as the axis around which the catechesis of children and adolescents is built (General Directory for Catechesis, 275).

In particular it is the family that is the primary catalyst for evangelization and catechesis, with parents serving as the proto-evangelist, or the first to share the Gospel, with their children. The family is necessary for evangelization and parents are the primary catechists of their children. For this reason we as a department and a parish seek to empower families to fully live out their role as domestic church (Lumen Gentium).